Accidental Catholic

I was born to Protestant parents and duly baptized. By 1948, we were living in the Diliman campus of the University of the Philippines (UPD), where my mother, Ruby, was the secretary of the Conservatory of Music, armed with only a certificate in piano (she got her bachelor’s and postgraduate degrees later, from 1952 to 1966). My father, Federico, was a well-known writer and gardener.

By 1949, my parents thought it was time to enroll me in Grade 1, even though I was only 5 years old, since I could already read, after a year at a private kindergarten. The problem was that UPD had no grade school yet. A family friend (Pilar M. Normandy, a journalist), recommended the Ateneo de Manila at Padre Faura. My father listed me as 6 years old, which was a lie.

There was an entrance exam, quite easy. On the first day of school, I was assigned to Grade 2, or skipping Grade 1 altogether. My father got alarmed and confessed my true age to the headmaster (Fr. Maximo David, SJ) who said, let’s try him out, and see what happens. My father felt absolved and went from feeling embarrassed about lying to bragging openly about me. Fairly soon, I got a second baptism by Father David, with Auntie Pil as godmother, and had thus become a Catholic without being consulted about it. I got the baptismal name of Genaro—the name of my paternal grandfather whom I never met since my father was orphaned very young—but never used it.

Protestant at home, Catholic at school. I didn’t know the difference until Grade 3, when there was a call for those who lacked their First Communion, and a classmate said in a loud voice, “You, Mahar, you Protestant!” I was very offended, stood up, and shouted back: “How can I be a Protestant, when I don’t even know what a Protestant is!”

In time, I understood the difference between Protestants and Catholics, but never felt inferior about it. I just never mentioned coming from a Protestant family. Religion was an easy school subject. I liked the grade school and the people around; what I resented was being forced to be on the school paper, most likely due to my father’s reputation.

By 1954, when I finished grade school, at age 10, UPD already had its own grade school, which my younger brothers were attending. My father gave me the choice of continuing to the Ateneo high school, which had just moved to Loyola Heights, or of shifting to UPD, and I chose Ateneo. He also reminded me of my baptismal name, but I said I preferred the name he gave me. Ateneo was a financial sacrifice, since children of faculty members enjoyed free tuition at UP.

Ateneo in high school. It was in high school that I started to interact with Jesuits. They are good people. We had four years of Latin, challenging but very worthwhile. Religion was an easy subject but not absorbing. We were taught from the Douai version; at home, we had the King James Version, which is superior as literature. I wasn’t interested in Catholic clubs, and was glad to be rid of the school paper. My one extracurricular was the high school band, which I joined as a senior so as to avoid premilitary training, and its weekly hazing experience.

I had no theology; at Ateneo, it is taken in college. What I silently objected to in Catholicism was the holier-than-thou attitude in the maxim extra ecclesiam nulla salus (“no salvation outside the church”). How could my entire family be damned simply for being Protestant?

My real problem at the Ateneo high school was that I couldn’t hide my age like I could hide my Protestant background. Being two years younger than others, I was small and uncompetitive in sports. While others were learning to dance I was still at baril-barilan at home. But in UP for college, at 14, I played full-court basketball for the first time. I joined the Reserve Officers’ Training Corp band (tenor sax), again to avoid hazing—not for the free tuition benefit, which I didn’t need. I was a reporter for the Philippine Collegian, to earn a salary that weaned me from parental dependence by my junior year. I had no interest in either UP Student Catholic Action or the UP Christian Youth Movement. I joined Pan Xenia fraternity.

The Vatican has revised its attitude toward non-Catholics. I only recently learned (from a Jesuit of course) that extra ecclesiam was revoked by the Second Vatican Council, which “enfranchised” not only Protestants but also all non-Christians (see “Vatican II, ‘Nostra Aetate’ and interreligious dialogue: A radical turn in Catholic history,” americamagazine.org, 1/12/26). Nostra Aetate (“in our time”) was a proclamation of the Church to non-Christian religions by Pope Paul VI on Oct. 28, 1965. Pope Leo XIII called attention to it on its 60th anniversary last year. It says that “men expect from the various religions answers to the unsolved riddles of the human condition,” citing Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, and Islam in particular.

Readers may recall that my hobby is to look up stories of saints (see “My saints of the week,” 3/23/24). Last Thursday, Jan. 15, was the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968), “Apostle of Freedom,” Baptist minister, civil rights leader, nonviolence advocate. Commemorated by Lutherans as a Renewer of Society. Included among 20th century martyrs by Pope John Paul II in 2000. Commemorated by the United States Episcopal Church on April 4, when he was assassinated. The US marks his birthday by making the third Monday of January a national holiday.

Yesterday, Jan. 16, was the deathday of Roberto de Nobili, SJ (1577-1656), Italian, missionary to Goa, India. He mastered Sanskrit; adopted the dress, customs and diet of a Sannyasi (Hindu holy man); was called “the white Brahmin.” Hoped to convert India by convincing the elite; permitted Brahmin converts to practice the caste system; taught that Christ was a divine guru come down to earth. Was condemned by the local Christian church but upheld by Pope Gregory XV.

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mahar.mangahas@sws.org.ph.

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